Market Chatter-Corporate finance press digest

Source :

Last Updated: Mon, Feb 11, 2013 03:40 hrs

Feb 11 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related
stories were reported by media on Monday:

* Barclays will target at least 2 billion pounds
($3.17 billion) in savings from its 20 billion pounds annual
cost base when it announces a strategic overhaul on Tuesday, the
Financial Times reported, adding that the overhaul includes
cutting about 2,000 investment bank jobs and shuttering some
operations in parts of Europe.

* The U.S. Treasury, under pressure to quickly wind down its
crisis-era bailouts, believes it cannot rush the sale of auto
lender Ally Financial because the company's mortgage lending
unit is in a messy bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter
told Reuters.

* US Airways Group Inc and AMR Corp are
nearing an $11 billion merger that would create the world's
largest airline and could announce a deal within a week, after
resolving key differences on valuation and management structure,
people familiar with the matter said.

* Three of Dell Inc's largest investors joined
Southeastern Asset Management on Friday in objecting to a $24.4
billion buyout of the No. 3 PC maker led by Chief Executive
Michael Dell, sources said, as opposition grows to the largest
buyout since the start of the financial crisis.

* Montagu Private Equity has sold the ghd hair styling brand
to Lion Capital, with two sources close to the deal putting the
purchase price at nearly 300 million pounds.

* Credit Suisse's top investment banker for Qatar
has resigned, three banking sources said, in a move that comes
as the Swiss bank tries to bolster operations in the Gulf state,
home to its second-largest shareholder.

* CIT Group Inc had preliminary talks over the past
year and a half to sell itself to banks, including
Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, but
nothing came of the conversations, according to three people
familiar with the speciality finance company.

* Bidders competing for ThyssenKrupp AG's
loss-making U.S. and Brazilian steel mills are teaming up in an
effort to make the investment more digestible, according to
people familiar with the transaction.

* Royal Bank of Scotland will pay Chief Executive
Stephen Hester a 780,000 pounds bonus deferred from three years
ago while other executives see pay clawed back in the wake of
the Libor rate rigging scandal, the Sunday Times newspaper said.